Good News - November 2020

MARKED BY THE WORD 43 NOVEMBER 2020 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition 2200 SW 10th St. Deerfield Beach, FL 33442 [email protected] - 954 637 2268 @southfloridabiblecollege APPLY NOW! Save $75 application fee for the month of November SFBC.EDU/ GOODNEWS Access the link to receive this promotion SAVE $75 TODAY Christian Counseling EARN A BACHELORS DEGREE IN AT SOUTH FLORIDA BIBLE COLLEGE 0.666666666666…), but in spite of always growing larger the more it is carried out, it can never attain 7 within finite space. If six is the biblical number of man and seven is the number of God, this number ( ) depicts the impassable division, in a metaphoric sense, between the infinite Creator and the finite creature. It sug- gests the everlasting torment of the “beast” whose pride aspires to be divine. His (asymptotic) pride is eternally swelling up ever larger, yet he is simultaneously and perpetually frustrated within the impassable boundaries of finite space. Un- ending and ever increasing pride along with ever increasing and unending frus- tration — perhaps we are here given a dark window into the meaning of hell itself. These examples however, also offer a window into heaven. How is that? What does it mean when Jesus offers us the gospel promise that he is even now prepar- ing a place for us (John 14:2-3) that we might dwell in the house of the Lord for- ever? (Psalm 23:6). How can we imagine what it will be like for finite creatures to dwell forever (asymptotically) alongside their infinite Creator? Let’s begin with the revelation that God has made us in his image (Genesis 1:26-27). As imaging creatures, we become like the God (or idols) we worship (cf. Psalm 115:4-8). This relationship between mankind and God is dynamic. We, finite creatures, will always, throughout all the uncounted ages of eternity, increase our imaging of God, always becoming more like him yet never exhausting him in his infinite goodness. God has made us to share in the joy and love of Jesus (John 15:11, 17:13, 24-26). This means that in heaven we will be increasing in joy, always becoming more like Jesus, but never exhausting his divine heart. Our joy will be asymptotic, always increasing and approaching the reality of the Lord we have been created to image forth, but never transcending our nature as creatures. This is the promise of everlasting life, as the Lord offered to Nicodemus. Our love of Jesus, too, will grow throughout all the ages of time! The more we see the absolute holiness of the Savior, the more we will understand the depths of the sin he overcame in our redemption, and the deeper will become our under- standing of his redeeming love for us. Our happiness in him will grow throughout all the ages forever. Ever increasing love and a love that can never be exhausted! Heaven will be dynamic. It will be anything but static. That is the promise of “ever- lasting life” given by the gospel. Heaven, in other words, will rock! “That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowl- edge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19). Dr. Warren A. Gage, Th.M., J.D., Ph.D. is president of The Alexandrian Form, which provides life-changing Biblical teaching. © 2020 The Alexandrian Forum